Senior Backend Engineer, Collection

Vannevar is a defense technology company building AI to deter our adversaries. In the 21st century, conflict moves at algorithmic speed and foresight equals firepower. Our agentic AI is purpose-built to compete with China - from cross-Strait conflict to gray zone coercion. Trained on the most mission-relevant datasets in defense, our technology models adversary behavior, simulates campaigns, and recommends the best course of action to decision makers. Our AI systems are some of the most trusted in the industry and actively used on the front lines of the Indo-Pacific to keep the peace and save lives.

Exceptional technology starts with exceptional people. Vannevar is a small agile team combining world-class engineers with veteran strategists who bring deep expertise in defense and tradecraft. We’re building a company defined by mission impact, user empathy, and disciplined growth. In just three years, we grew from $3M to $80M in ARR, achieved early profitability, and reached unicorn status - proving that disruption doesn’t require an ego, and staying power doesn’t mean standing still.

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced Backend Engineer to build and refine our data collection and processing applications. You’ll be in charge of designing and building scalable, robust systems that collect mission-critical data and then building out pipelines for those data. You will be a technical leader, improving existing systems and personnel, and supplying our product suite with rich, comprehensive data.

You are innovative: willing to take risks, think critically about novel solutions, and advocate for your ideas while seeking feedback and collaboration. You will be making trade-offs as you work to ensure that our systems are prepared to scale - being able to effectively communicate these trade-offs with your teammates is a must.

You will creatively engineer solutions to access hard-target data, structuring messy data streams into valuable information that partner teams can use to build custom DoD workflows with our customers.

Note: This role is also open to Staff+ candidates.

What you’ll do

• Develop innovative software systems that collect data from multiple online sources
• Gain and maintain access to hard-to-collect OSINT data
• Ensure the systems are scalable and robust, and adapt to a rapidly changing environment
• Collaborate with our mission team and product managers to translate user needs into data collection solutions
• Collaborate with product and platform engineering teams to ensure data delivery
• Improve existing data collection systems
• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to peers

What we’re looking for

• 7+ years as a Backend Engineer or similar role
• Experience scraping data or a strong desire to learn
• Proficiency with distributed systems
• Proficiency with Python, AWS, multiple database technologies
• Excellent communication and teamwork skills
• U.S. Person status is required as this position will require the ability to access U.S. only data systems with the ability to obtain security clearance

Nice to Have

• Active Security clearance or ability to obtain one and desire to travel to visit users
• Experience building ETL workflows with large-scale messy data
• Experience with Temporal

What we offer

We’re proud to offer competitive benefits that support our employees. Some key highlights of our benefits package include:

• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Remote friendly with WeWork access
• Unlimited PTO, shared downtime during the federal holiday calendar, and company-wide off time at the end of each year
• 401(k) match
• Lifestyle & wellbeing stipends
• Salary top-up during military reserve duty
• Fully paid parental leave
• Child and pet care reimbursement during travel

Vannevar is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, or disability status. We encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply, even if you don't feel like you're a perfect fit. If you're passionate about contributing to our mission, we'd love to hear from you! IMPORTANT NOTICE
We are committed to protecting the privacy of all applicants. Official emails from the company will come from an @vannevarlabs.com domain. Under no circumstances will a legitimate representative from our company contact you to request passwords, financial information, or other sensitive personal data. Please be vigilant of potential scams.